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CHAPTER II. 



THE FUNCTIONS OF LIFE. 



The intentions of the Deity in the creation of the animal, 

 kingdom, as far as we are competent to discern or compre- 

 hend them, are referrible to the following classes of objects. 

 The first relates to the individual welfare of the animal, em- 

 bracing the whole sphere of its sensitive existence, and the 

 means of maintaining the vitality upon which that existence 

 is dependent. The second comprises the provisions that have 

 been made for repairing the chasms resulting, in the present 

 circumstances of the globe, from the continual destruction 

 of life, by ensuring the multiplication of the species, and the 

 continuity of the race to which each animal belongs. The 

 the third includes all those arrangements which have been 

 resorted to, in order to accommodate the system to the con- 

 sequences that follow from an indefinite increase in the 

 numbers of each species. The fourth class relates to tliat 

 systematic economy in the plans of organization by which 

 all the former objects are most effectually secured. I shall 

 offer some observations on each of these general heads of in- 

 quiry. 



With reference to the welfare of the individual animal, 

 it is evident that in the brute creation, the great end to be 

 answered is the attainment of sensitive enjoyment. To this 

 all the arrangements of the system, and all the energies of 

 its vital powers must ultimately tend. Of what value would 

 be mere vegetative life to the being in whom it resides, un- 

 less it were accompanied by the faculty of sensation, and 

 unless the sensations thence arising were attended with plea- 

 sure? It is only by reasoning analogically from the feelings 



